God's Faithfulness Was Never the Thing on Trial | Mornings with Mico

Yo, people, what's going on? My name is Miko. This is Mornings with Miko. Just wanted to dive in today. And this might ruffle some feathers a bit, but I want to let somebody know that, put some people on alert. God's faithfulness is not what's on trial. It's our surrender. And that's always been the case. I think somewhere in his life of faith, the question, it just quietly changes, right? It starts out at some point in our walk, maybe at the beginning, is will God do what he said? We hear a word, we get a word from God, and it's like, will he actually do what he said? And over time, I think usually, like maybe through a long wait or so, that question shifts into the more accurate question, I would say. And it's no longer will God do what he said, but will I surrender to the way he chooses to do it, and in the time that he chooses to do it in? That's a completely different question entirely, right? And actually, it costs more. The first one, it puts God on trial, and it all relies on him. Second one, it puts us there. It puts us on trial, which is actually the more accurate statement of the two. Second, Timothy says in chapter 213, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. And I love the last part. Honestly, I feel like we just got to let that breathe a bit. It says he cannot deny himself. For God to break his word, he would have to stop being who he is. His faithfulness, it's not a mood or preference, right? Or like a reward that he hands out like to whoever earns it this week. It's his character. It doesn't rise to the occasion and then fall when we fold. This is who he is, 24-7, 365, before you were ever even thought of, right? And I think, naturally, for me anyway, it makes us think about the alternative, like in what that would mean. If God's faithfulness was contingent on ours, then every promise that he ever made would ever make would only be as secure as our worst day, to be honest with you. His reliability would be contingent on our reliability. Your record, our record, it would set the terms. It would actually dictate his faithfulness. Your faithfulness, your reliability, that's what would set the terms. Your failures would cancel out his promises and his reliability. And that's not the gospel. That's just like more so like the same accounting that you've already been living under and just stamping his name on it. And that's not the gospel. That's not his story. I do want to be clear, right? Don't get me wrong, that we do have a role to play in it, but we have to get the order right. Our obedience doesn't create God's faithfulness. It actually just positions us to be able to

experience it. Faith isn't a campaign to convince God to be good or, you know, to be good to us. It's learning to trust that he already is and then living like that, living like it's true before you can even see it. God's faithfulness has never been a question. It's always been a matter of our surrender. Brings us to the real obstacle at play, in my opinion. Most of the time, I think I would say what's blocking things isn't God's willingness to act as much as it is our reluctance to let go. I know that's been my story a lot of the time. We want the promise. We want the process on our terms, and we want the outcome to mirror our preferences. We want God to submit to our preferences and do so on our timeline. We want the destination, but without the road that it actually takes to get there. And when the road is more winding or it's longer or it's slower than what we would have expected or what we would have hoped for, than what we would have planned for, I think that's when we begin the complaining and the compromising, right? And that goes in place of, you know, trusting, right? Instead of trusting, we lean into the compromising, the complaining, right? I think nobody in scripture, at least in my opinion, probably really experiences this and knows this, as well as Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph, as a teenager, he gets a promise from God, and then everything just shifts into the wrong direction, right? He ends up in a pit, he gets sold into slavery, he gets lied on, and then he finds out. Finds himself in a jail scene, right? He finally catches a break while being incarcerated when he interprets a dream for Pharaoh's cup there and on his way out being released He tells the cup bear. He says remember me, right? He tells the cup bear to remember me in the cup bear. He could go to Pharaoh and then get Joseph released right then and there but It's not a story goes Genesis 4 or Genesis 40 It says Yet the chief cup bear did not remember Joseph, but forgot him after two whole years of Pharaoh's dream two years after Pharaoh's dream. He was still incarcerated two years in the space

right, like I think that This is one of those things where It's like he literally could have gotten him out that same day had he just remembered he was Kind of in his own world where he was like, you know what? I'm out and moved on with his life Joseph he had no way of knowing that God was still working from inside the cell it looked exactly like just being forgotten being forgotten by everybody including God and I think the thing is as We know as we look at the entire story, we realize God was still faithful the entire time we can make it personal, right? the appeal that went nowhere the lawyer that made the promise that failed through the the person that got released and was supposed to do something on your behalf and Just never did the person that was supposed to write and it never happened a person that was supposed to come visit and it never Came to pass man Joseph's story insists that the delay was not evidence of God's absence But rather it was the path not a detour around the promise, but the road into the promise. I Know in the moment that might be tough to digest To see your what feels like being forgotten as God's path, right? But as we see in Joseph's story that was the case and that very well may be the case and what God is doing with you I Love in Habakkuk 2 3 it says for still the vision awaits. It's appropriate or no It's appointed time it hastens to the end It will not lie if it seems slow wait for it. It will surely come it will not delay Here me clip I want to be clear with this and I don't want us to get this twisted surrender. It's not the same thing. It's passivity. It's not giving up It's not going numb and just saying, you know what it is what it is. That's not surrender That is not what that is not what the message is. That is not what the Bible teaches It's that that's more of a vote like a self-defense mechanism in in our way of you know Not getting our hopes up or so that waiting hurts less. That's what that is. That is not the same thing as scriptural surrender It isn't pretending that you don't want out right Joseph. He was still he never stopped wanting out He was he told the guy remember me like I want to get out of here, too So it's not just giving up and just accepting it is way to be like that is not surrender

I want to make that perfectly clear that that's not what this is But also recognize that Joseph never stopped working He never stopped asking he never stopped praying he never stopped keeping this integrity even in a place where that wasn't even rewarded right even in a place where Like like it being good was for nothing, you know What he did is he surrendered the timeline He never gave up on a man. He got was calling him to be he never forfeited that role. He just surrendered the timeline Surrender means you take your hands off the steering wheel while remaining faithful with the things in front of It means you stop demanding that God prove himself when you're scheduled and you keep showing up anyway, because that's who you are Because that's the character that he's developing in you, right? We're called to be Christ like as We read in the verse earlier says he's faithful even when we're not faithful We're called to mirror that we're called to grow more alike in that way to remain faithful Even when our circumstances don't aren't faithful, even when the people around us aren't faithful Even when our integrity doesn't gain us anything. It's not we're not doing it for something We're doing because this is who we're called to be and we're called to reflect this this aspect of Jesus this Aspect of God in all of these different spaces. He calls us to otherwise We just mirror the rooms were in and we're no different than the rest of the world. What separates us is this? unwavering faithfulness that God has and that we, in his grace, we're called to mirror in the spaces that he's called us to. Surrender means you continue to remain faithful. It means you stop demanding that God proves himself on your schedule and you keep showing up anyway. The God who made the promise is also wise enough to choose the road and we have to step into agreement with that. We have to surrender to him. Lord, you are wise enough to choose the road. You're wise enough to choose the path to the promise. Not simply the promise, you're also the God of the details along the way. So the real question isn't whether he'll come through. That was settled in his character way before you were ever even born. The question, the question is whether you'll trust him enough to let him be God, including on the parts of the road that you would have never chosen specifically for yourself. That's the question. I want to leave you with three things and love for you to just take some time today and just journal this with God. What have you been asking God for on your terms?

Write the outcomes that you want and then write the parts of the path that you've been refusing to let go. What have you decided about God during this wait that isn't actually true about him? Where did that verdict even come from? Question these thoughts, right? Question like, where did this thinking even come from? Why do I believe this way? Thirdly, remembering that surrender isn't passing. What's the next right thing in front of you that you've been putting off into your circumstance change? What is the thing that is in front of you now that you could be called to be faithful to, that you're putting off to do into your circumstance change? When my circumstance looks different, then I'll be faithful with this thing, then I'll do the thing. What is that thing in front of you right now that you're called to be faithful to, that you've been putting off? Let's do it. I hope this blesses you, man.